Tuesday

I find this story so disturbing that it sends chills up my spine. In Nigeria, where the Muslim sharia law has now been adopted, a Nigerian woman has been sentenced to death by stoning for giving birth to a child without being married to the child's bio father. But the sharia court has benevolently decreed that her execution can be delayed until her baby is weaned from the breast.

So let me get this straight. These evil Nigerian officials don't want to deprive this infant of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, which are undeniable, but have no problem with depriving the child of his mother by KILLING her? This reminds me of Margaret Atwood's book, The Handmaid's Tale, in which fertile women have become useful only as living vessels to produce and nurse babies. After they are no longer useful for these specific tasks, they are disposed of.

You know, as a good 'n' guilty progressive Episcopalian-type person, I want to believe all the platitudes floating around about how Islam is actually a peaceful religion that respects women and how stuff like this represents some kind of aberration from historical Islamic norms, but I am finding that harder and harder to do. Islam's institutional hatred for women and girls around the world is central to why Islamists want to blow up American buildings and kill us. The Saudis and the Pakistanis may be spoken of as "American friends" but they are certainly not friendly toward me, my daughter, my sister, or my mother. In fact, within their belief system, I too would be sentenced to death by stoning simply because I am who I am.